Emily Zoladz | The Grand Rapids PressDean and Nancy McCarrick are organizing a series of sporting events to raise money for cancer research at the Van Andel Institute in honor of their friend Elizabeth Wright, who died of melanoma in 2007.
The nonprofit Grand Rapids institute’s A Community for a Cure has designated Purple Games at West Michigan college and high school athletic contests to raise money for cancer research at its Van Andel Research Institute.

The genesis was Grandville’s Pink Game, an April 24 girls’ soccer match with Muskegon that drew 3,000 people and raised $9,100.

“It was never about the money,” said Grandville coach Dean McCarrick, who organized the Pink Game with his wife, Nancy. “We just wanted to show that no one is in this battle alone.”

The first Purple Games are the Calvin-Dodrt men’s college hockey match at 7 p.m. Friday in The Jolly Roger, 2600 Village Drive SE; and the Hope-Adrian college football game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Holland Municipal Stadium. Calvin is selling commemorative T-shirts.

Purple jerseys are being worn by the Hope football team, which has three players who lost a parent to cancer and at least two others’ battling the disease.